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How green is your electricity company?
They're all doing it, draping themselves in images of windmills and claiming green credentials - but how green are the UK's electricity companies really?
How much of what you see is spin and how much is real? That's a question we've asked ourselves often enough. And lately, with the ‘Big Six’ spending £millions on slick TV ads - this seems a more pressing question than ever.
The only way to judge who's really green and who's only saying they are?
Actually it’s quite simple.
Just look at how much each electricity company spends building new sources of green electricity each year - we call it New Energy. The only green electricity that does anything to reduce CO2 emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels is the New kind, the stuff that gets built today and tomorrow. If you're not building you're not actually achieving anything green at all. It's just marketing and spin.
We've produced a measure for spending on New Energy we call it ‘pounds per customer’ - it shows how much each electricity company actually spends, for each of it's customers on the new green stuff. It's a number that cuts through the fog of marketing and to the heart of the issue, irrespective of company size.
Take a look at the last six years average spend and see for yourself.
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The six year story
The figures may change slightly every year, but it’s the same consistent poor showing from the big energy firms. It’s now E.ON’s dubious honour to bring up the rear with a paltry average spend of £4.48 per customer per year, closely followed by our French nuclear friends EDF Energy with just £4.98. Even the best of the Big Six - Scottish Power – hasn’t been spending the minimum legally binding yearly equivalent of £30 from each customer’s electricity bill on new renewables, falling short with £25.79. And it’s six times unlucky for customers of the small independents, who have consistently spend nothing and so find themselves firmly at the foot of the table.
By contrast, Ecotricity spent an average £387.93 in each of the last six years for each of its customers –that’s over ten times our obligation, and more than ten times the spend of any other energy company on new renewables.
The big energy companies talk a lot about future investment and commitment to a greener Britain – but after six years, these figures seem to tell a very different story.
(How were these figures calculated?)
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Who spent what in 2009
After a promising 2008 with an average spend of £26.51 per customer, the other energy companies are right back down again in 2009 with an average of just £12.39 per customer, less than half of the minimum target.
Yet in the same year, and despite a really tough economic climate, Ecotricity still managed to spend over £76 per customer. We’re a small company up against the Big Six multinational energy giants with their deep pockets, so you may wonder what their excuse is?
This needs to be a sprint, not a crawl. Based on these investment figures, Britain will still fail to meet even half of the EU's 2020 renewable energy target.
(How were these figures calculated?)
Total Commitment
Year in, year out Ecotricity spends more per customer than the all other electricity suppliers in the UK put together - an awful lot more. We have spent the same as a typical electricity bill, every year, for each of our customers, building more new green energy sources. We like to think of it as ‘turning electricity bills into windmills’. And there really is no greater change that you can bring with your electricity bill.
Meanwhile many of the Big Six spend more on TV advertising than they do on the real thing. And the small green electricity companies, who you’d expect to do better, or to do something (Green Energy and Good Energy) consistently spend nothing each and every year.
But as a customer, you do have a choice of where your energy actually comes from, not just the logo at the top of your bill. Use that wisely in the best way you possibly can and switch to Ecotricity now.
2007 League Table
2006 League Table
2005 League Table
2004 League Table
Pounds per customer spent on new sources of green electricity
Some energy companies are bigger than others of course, so the total they spend on building new green electricity sources is useful to know, but is not the whole story.
To get meaningful comparisons you need to simply see how much is spent per customer. This shows you how much of your electricity bill actually gets spent each year, building new sources of green. And how much of a difference you make by being with your supplier.
It's that simple - We call it pounds per customer. And it's the acid test of green commitment. It's simple enough maths too - Just take the total number of customers each supplier has and divide that by their total spend on new green electricity sources in any given year.
For the last 4 years we've been doing just this and publishing the results at whichgreen.org
How the figures are calculated.
It’s very simple. We take the total number of customers each supplier has in any year and divide into that their total spending on building new sources of green electricity, in the same year. That gives spending in ‘pounds per customer’.
Customer numbers for each supplier are sourced from the suppliers own publications. Their expenditure on building new renewables comes either from them or (if they are unwilling to provide) from figures published by OFGEM (the industry regulator).
OFGEM figures show the ownership, start date, and size of all new renewable generators in the UK, each year. We take the size figures and multiply them by the average cost to build - for that form of renewable generation and that gives the total spent by each company (Our sources are Ofgem; BWEA; Enviros 2005).
And we give all suppliers the opportunity to comment on and correct our numbers. Then we publish.
How the figures are calculated.
It’s very simple. We take the total number of customers each supplier has in any year and divide into that their total spending on building new sources of green electricity, in the same year. That gives spending in ‘pounds per customer’.
Customer numbers for each supplier are sourced from the suppliers own publications. Their expenditure on building new renewables comes either from them or (if they are unwilling to provide) from figures published by OFGEM (the industry regulator).
OFGEM figures show the ownership, start date, and size of all new renewable generators in the UK, each year. We take the size figures and multiply them by the average cost to build - for that form of renewable generation and that gives the total spent by each company (Our sources are Ofgem; BWEA; Enviros 2005).
And we give all suppliers the opportunity to comment on and correct our numbers. Then we publish.
The average spend of all electricity companies is the arithmetic mean of the spend per customer of all the other suppliers.
New sources of green electricity
We need more sources of Green Electricity in the UK, lots more. We need it to provide us with clean energy and a way to fight climate change. The only green electricity that actually does anything in either regard is the new kind - the stuff that gets built today, tomorrow and the next day. We call it New energy.
Many companies simply repackage green electricity that's been around for up to 50 years buying or selling this has no impact on CO2 emissions, the fight against climate change or where the UK gets its energy. If you buy this stuff you simply take it from the person that used it before you we call it robbing Peter to supply Paul.
2008 League Table
